Surrounded by hundreds of thousands
Strangers I become microscopic
Sitting on a soggy, mud-splattered
Army green woolen blanket
Completely soaked in t-shirt and shorts
Sandals mud-sucked away long ago
A brown river of primordial mud
Flows an arms length away and
And young bodies sluice wetly into
Massed oblivion somewhere down the hill
Only to watch the smiling rebels
Trying to regain the top of the slope
A slapstick revolution from top to bottom
And then familiar blue eyes caked in mud
Find mine and giant white teeth flash a smile
I know well-years ago serving together
In red cassocks and white surplices
Perfectly ironed and ramrod straight
Worshippers of a different religion
He in only shorts says I lost my stuff
I say do you want some food
He says yes and a ride home and
We listen to the star-spangled banner